Damaged
by AlegraValenti
Summary: 6th year story. new friends, new powers, and new adventures.. i suck at summaries.. sorry! please R&R to tell me if i should stop cause i'm horrible.. or keep going. Books 6&7 don't exist to me.
1. Chapter 1

He ran through the dark corridor, the candles hanging on the wall giving off a cold blue mist that surrounded him making it hard to breathe. He could hear the cold, sickeningly high, pitched laughter of Voldemort ringing in his ears. He heard Sirius up ahead calling for his help. He kept running and running, but the corridor never stopped. It just kept winding in front of him, taunting him; torturing him; telling him that hell never get there on time. Suddenly the wall came, a door in the center. He reached out panting, holding the stitch in his chest, and grabbed the fading golden handle. He retched the door open and saw it in front of him. The haunting images that played before him night after night. He stood frozen his face contorted in failure, pain and utter hopelessness.   
  
He watched his mother staring at him through cold, unforgiving lifeless eyes. Her eyes were shedding blackened blood red tears. Her face twisted in abhorrence and malice. Her blue moldy lips were wide in an ear-piercing scream. He watched his father look at him hatefully. His bright blue eyes dead and dark.  
  
"You are no son of mine. I should have let Voldemort kill you. At least Lily and me would be alive. I hate you, you fucking bastard. You deserve to die."  
  
He saw Cedric staring at the wall. His face held only disgust and loathing. He was cursing Harry. Every word that was spat out of his mouth was cold and unforgiving towards him. He watched as his godfather stared to his own dead body that was laying past him through a fluttering shabby, gray veil, yelling toward Harry, his face holding only repulsion and anger .  
  
"How could you do this to me Harry?? I loved you like a son and you killed me!! You stood there and watched you ungrateful little shit. Fuck you Harry. You son of a bitch, you shouldn't even be alive. I'm glad James and Lily died so they wouldn't have to be around to have a son like you. You are more dead to me than they are."  
  
I'm sorry." Harry choked repeatedly and slid along the doorframe down to the floor. He sat there on the floor rocking back and forth. Voldemort was laughing at him his parents rejecting him, Cedric cursing him, and Sirius was insulting him. In a flash of bright green light Harry looked up, his eyes bloodshot and puffy. All he saw was his godfathers body arching backwards toward the veil and —--  
  
Harry shot up from his spot on the ground. His body covered in a cold salty sweat. He was panting as if he had just run the long almost endless corridor that had been in his dream. He brought his fingers up to his forehead and rubbed the thin lightning bolt, shaped scar. It throbbed and ached between his fingers. Tears were burning behind his eyes and he blinked repeatedly to try and stop them from coming, but they just fell from his eyes. He brought his knees up and hugged them into his chest and sobbed quietly until there were no tears in his eyes left to shed. He stayed unknowing of the world around him for an hour. He was brought back to reality when a breeze floated past him nipping at his arms, making them shiver. He looked up from his stupor and looked about him. The sky was dark and he was sure it was well after midnight and his Uncle Vernon would give him hell the next morning. But Harry didn't really care about it. He didn't care about much of anything anymore.   
  
Ever since he had arrived at Privet Drive that summer, the raven-haired boy had shut every one out. He could only focus on the worst occurrences in his head. It was enough last year when Cedric had died, but now that Sirius was gone, he sank even lower in to his dark pit of despair and vindictive desolation. His heart would forever ache in his chest. Harry felt like Sirius still falling. Every time he closed his eyes he would see Sirius' and the swish of the veil as it fell into place.   
  
As another breeze blew past, the dark-haired boy rubbed his arms. He felt a dull pain as his rough callus hands slid over the long yawning gashes on his forearms. But it didn't really feel like pain anymore… it was just a feeling. He gathered from a young age that pain only got you hurt more, so he taught himself to ignore it the best that he could. Ignoring the pain had always worked so well for him. But When Sirius left, he lost that. Nothing made sense to him anymore. He knew that he should have just listened to Hermione and Ron and ignored the visions that Voldemort fed to him. He should have worked harder to do what Snape had demanded of him to do with Oculemancy, and swallowed his stupid pride.  
  
He got up off the ground and started to walk back to Number 4. He hated being with his aunt and uncle who hated him and treated him like less of a human being. He crossed over the front lawn and peered into the front window. There was no one inside and all the lights were turned off. He ambled over to the back yard and scaled the drainpipe. He put his fingers in the crack he left in the window and pulled up. He climbed in and fell with a soft thud to the floor. He walked over to his bed and sat down. He took his shoes off and lay down without thought of taking off his clothes and changing into his pajamas. He took his glasses off and closed his eyes, but he didn't go to sleep. He didn't sleep much anymore anyway. He never wanted to. Cause in his dreams he would be plagues with images of Sirius.  
  
Hedwig hooted softly from her perch and Harry snapped out of his reflections. He looked at his beautiful snowy white owl fondly. He got up and sat on his desk chair. He opened her cage and stroked her feathers lovingly. He opened his desk drawer, pushed past the unopened letters he had received, and pulled out and owl treat. He gave it to her and she ate it thankfully. He started at Hedwig for a few minutes before lying back down on his bed. He put his arm behind his head and stared at the ceiling. He thought for a few minutes on what he would do tomorrow before he rolled over on to his side and looked at the clock. 3:47, it read in bold red letters. He closed his eyes and let the blissful black oblivion of sleep take him, knowing that his uncle would give him extra chores tomorrow for his lateness in coming in.   
  
He woke up the next morning to someone shaking him roughly. He opened his eyes and the ugly pink pudgy face of his uncle Vernon came into view.  
  
"Get up now boy!" He snapped exiting the room, now that Harry was awake.   
  
Harry was thankful that for the first time he didn't have any dreams while he slept. He looked at the clock, 9:24. He got up and dressed groggily, then sluggishly walked down the steps. As soon as he entered the Kitchen his Uncle rounded on him. He gave Harry a hard punch to the head and the raven-haired boy fell to the ground.   
  
"The least those freak people of yours could do is teach you manners." He hissed at Harry.   
  
He kicked Harry in the ribs and then picked him up off the ground. He dragged Harry over to the back door and threw him outside.  
  
"Dudley's friends are coming over Saturday. I want everything perfect. After you finish up outside, then you'll clean everything inside. Understood?"  
  
He didn't even wait for any acknowledgement from Harry; he just went inside shutting the door behind him.  
  
The dark-haired boy walked to the small shed in the back of the yard, shed his oversized gray shirt, got out the tools he needed and started working. After four long hours, he had finished gardening and the lawn care, and trudged back to the garden shed, returning all the tools to their proper places. He leaned on the doorway for a moment before he headed back inside, not bothering to put the shirt back on his dirt and sweat covered back. All three of the Dursley's were sitting at the kitchen table, a torn envelope was sitting in the center of the table and a thick piece of parchment was lying in front of his uncle. All three of them were looking smug about something. Uncle Vernon was smirking at him in a very superior manner and Harry debated hexing the man into unconsciousness, but he decided that he didn't want to face another disciplinary hearing because of his uncle. Harry merely folded his dirty arms around his naked torso and waited for the next blow to fall.  
  
"This letter just arrived for you from your Headmaster." His uncle said, a mad sort of triumph in his tone.   
  
Harry picked up the letter and read it.  
  
_Dear Harry,  
  
I am sorry to say this but this is the only letter you shall receive for the rest of the summer. I am afraid Voldemort has gotten word somehow, of the general location of your aunt's residence. Therefore, we cannot communicate with you until we manage a safe place and time for you to be brought within our care. But until then it is of the utmost importance to break all ties with you. This means that you cannot contact anyone in the wizarding world until we come and collect you. I cannot emphasize to you the danger of the situation. You must remain within the property of your Aunts house, and you are for no reason besides the most important ones to use any magic at anytime or you will be found. I trust that you understand the situation that lay out in front of us.  
  
Remember that I will come and get you when the time is right.  
  
Albus Dumbledore._  
  
"Looks like those freak friends of yours don't care what happens to you as much as we do." his uncle sneered at him. "And now we can do what we see fit you teach you some manners. Now eat your lunch, then go and clean up the house, then clean yourself up."  
  
"Yes Uncle Vernon." Harry muffled back.   
  
Harry sat at the edge of the chair and ate bread and cheese. He swallowed his glass of water in one breath and finished his small piece of ham. He walked over to the closet full of cleaning supplies and got out the necessary equipment and began his long tedious task. The house was always sickeningly clean. If fact, he felt like being in the kitchen was like being in a smaller version of the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts. Harry knew he was being punished, so he kept his mouth shut so he wouldn't have to work longer. In about two hours and ten minutes the downstairs was finished. He made sure his Aunt felt that everything was the way she wanted it. She checked, double checked and perfected Harry's cleaning mistakes (even though there weren't any.) and then let him go upstairs to clean.   
  
The upstairs to almost three and a half hours to complete. After about 20 minutes of complaining from Dudley about letting 'that freak' into his room, his aunt persuaded him that having Harry clean it was better then making him clean it. It took an hour and twenty minutes to clean Dudley's room alone. The other two rooms, and the bathroom were simple compared to the whale child's room. The raven haired boy didn't understand how someone that size could fit in there with all that stuff thrown about like a tornado had crashed through it. His Aunt Petunia watched him like a hawk when he cleaned Her and uncle Vernon's room and their son's room. For some reason maybe she thought that Harry wanted to steal something.   
  
'If I ever get psychotic enough to get the urge,' Harry thought to himself.  
  
When his aunt finally let him go, Harry went outside and sat in the back corner of the property, that was sheltered by thick jade bushes. He rested his head on the trunk of a tree and closed his eyes. His body ached all over from the effort he put forth on the long job he just finished. His stomach growled from the lack of food he'd received around 1. He thought about his friends as he sat there cooling down in the shade. He wondered what everyone at the Burrow was doing, and if Hermione was with them. She and Ron had gotten really close the last few weeks of school, and Harry wondered if they had gotten together yet. He had already though about it for the past few weeks since school got out sitting alone in his room. He felt cool about the idea in the beginning. After all they were just normal teenagers who wanted to be happy. Afterward, he just felt mad at them. They were abandoning him and their friendship for each other, leaving Harry alone by himself again. It wasn't fair, but nothing had ever been fair for Harry. He had been miserable all his life. When he turned 11, he though that was over. He had finally met people who like being around him for him. But since his 4th year, he felt like that was all slowly slipping away from him. And since a month ago it was gone completely. He had known since about 3rd. year, that Dumbledore never really cared about or liked him. Harry was just some weapon that he had to keep from Voldemort. He was just everyone's way out that they could step all over, and then throw away when they were done. Harry sat under the tree thinking until the sun started to set. He got up and went inside. His relatives were gone out to dinner, and had left a note telling him to eat his dinner and go to bed. He got the small plate of food from the refrigerator and ate it quickly. He climbed the creaky stairs and went into the bathroom. He took a fast shower and went to his room. He dressed for bed and lie down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Sleep took him early that night and his dreams of Sirius haunted him again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter characters... sadly they belong to a very rich lady named J.K. Rowling... who.. is not me.. otherwise i would not be writing.... oh, what do you call this?.... fanfiction. I forgot to put one in the first chapter.. soooo.. i guess ill make up for it and put two.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter characters... if i did.. i would have butlers typing this for me....

...heh. i have no life.....

Chapter 2.  
  
Over the next two weeks the Dursley's were rarely home. Dudley's birthday was special since he was turning 16 this year and treated him like a king, taking him and his friend Piers wherever they wanted to go. His aunt and uncle decided they would dote upon their already spoiled son even more since he had 'dieted' for the past two years 'successfully' losing 13 lbs. They locked Harry in his cupboard when they left, leaving him in there for the whole day, not bothering to give him breakfast, or caring that he didn't get lunch, and when they got back they would give him the simplest of meals for dinner.   
  
After Dudley's special birthday, they stayed home and finally let Harry out of the cupboard under the stairs. They fed him and then threw him out of the house with a chore list to finish. He was told that he was to finish all of them before he could come inside. When he was about a third into the work, it started raining, but the Dursley's made no effort to let him into the house and out of the rain, so Harry kept working. It rained the whole time he was concluding his chores. By the time he was finished it was 3'clock in the afternoon and he was freezing cold, drenched from head to toe and hungry. Harry knocked on the doors leading to the kitchen. His uncle came to the door and let him inside, only after he had taken off his shirt and shoes.   
  
"Go clean yourself up now, boy." His uncle snapped at him.   
  
The raven-haired boy nodded and went upstairs to the bathroom. He shed his remaining clothes and stepped in the shower. The warm water felt hot on his cold skin. He wanted to stay there forever. Soaking the heat into his skin, but fearing punishment for staying in the shower too long, he cleaned up and got out. He went to Dudley's second bedroom and got out more clothes for him to wear. He put them on quickly after drying off and went downstairs. His shirt and shoes were still sitting on the tile, he went over, picked them up and put the shirt in the dryer. He took paper towels and dried the shoes off and put them on, sufficiently soaking his feet again with the water the towels couldn't get rid of. His Aunt set a plate of food, consisting of a piece of toast a small block of cheese and a piece of turkey, on the table. He sat down and promptly ate it from his hunger.   
  
At the end of the day, his Uncle Vernon and Dudley had left to go shopping for new summer clothes for Dudley. Harry's aunt told him to go upstairs to bed and he did so, not waiting for her to catch her mistake of not putting him in his cupboard. When he got to his room he felt dizzy. He sat down heavily on the bed and caught his breath that he didn't know he had to catch. He lay down on the mattress and felt his eyes start to close automatically. He was so tired, but he couldn't sleep, cause he would dream of Sirius and death again. He snapped his eyes open and lay in the darkness of the room. His body was to exhausted to stay awake and his eyelids were gradually getting heavier and heavier. Before he knew it. He was asleep.   
  
Vernon Dursely was sitting in the chair at his desk, waiting for Harry to wake up. When he saw the brilliant emerald of Harry's beautiful eyes, he got up and walked over to Harry and grabbed him by the hair. He snatched up the owls cage in his other hand ignoring the protesting squawks the bird gave as she was thrown about. The hefty man was beyond upset at his nephew and pulled him out of the room and down the stairs, not all surprised that the boy wasn't screaming or whimpering from the pain he was feeling. He pulled the latch to the cupboard under the stairs open and threw the dark-haired boy and the bird inside, locking the door afterwards, and shutting the small air vent on the front of the door. He very knew well that the cabinet was too small for the now 5'9" young man, but he didn't care. The boy didn't know discipline of hit bit him in the ass and he would teach it to him until he got it through his thick skull. The freak should have gone to the cupboard and not upstairs. He knew she shouldn't have. He was talking advantage of his wife mistake. The boy was to be punished for everything he did wrong until he got it right. That abnormality would learn to abide by his rules or he would be thrown out onto the streets.   
  
Harry sat confined in the darkness of the tiny closet rubbing his aching head. He had a big enough headache as it was, but his uncle had made it worse by pulling on his hair. He shifted sideways so he could stretch out his body more. He leaned his head and back against the wall. He felt extremely dizzy and closed his eyes, breathing heavily. He felt Hedwig's eye boring onto him, but he didn't acknowledge her. There was little air getting inside the small cupboard since the vent was shut. It was dusty and smelt stale. When ever he moved the dust stirred, making Harry breathe it in and cough.   
  
He sat there in the darkness listening to the sounds his incompetent relatives were making. Around lunchtime his aunt unbolted the cupboard door and let him out to go to the bathroom. She gave him half a sandwich and a small glass of milk. Harry ate it hungrily, saving the top slice of bread for his faithful owl. He knew the only reason his aunt was being more civil towards him was because of the threats the order had given her. Harry though about what the order had told his aunt about the wards around the house they had put up. When he finished eating, his aunt ushered him back into the cupboard and locked it shut. He wondered for a minute why he wasn't chore bound, but he quickly registered that it was a good thing in his head so he just sat there quietly and thought. He looked toward Hedwig in the darkness and saw her amber eyes glowing to him, reflecting what little light they had coming in. She hooted softly and he reached into her cage, gave her the bread, and stroked her opal white feathers gingerly. He started hard at the vent in the door, watching the day get brighter and then fade into the dusk of the evening. His aunt came back when supper came around and did what she had done at noon. She made his stay in the kitchen to clean the day's dishes up by hand before secluding him to the cupboard again.   
  
This was the ritual for the rest of the week. Everyday he just stared ahead thinking. Mostly about Sirius. Harry knew it was his fault that Sirius had died. He had thought that since the incident. Everybody had told him that it hadn't been his fault, but he knew better. He hated the fact he was connected to Voldemort. He didn't want to feel his emotions or see what he was doing or anything. He just wanted to be left alone. He though about just killing himself to end it all. Then he would remember he was the world's 'savior,' but its not like he wanted to be. No one ever asked him what he wanted. They didn't care, they were just using him to save their sorry asses.   
  
When Sunday came about, his uncle let him out in the morning so the chores he had been spared from during the week could be performed. By the end of the day, his muscles burned and ached. His fingers bled though the cuts he had received from the many weeds that were spread though his aunts flowerbeds. His knees were nicked and bleeding from the small, sharp, jagged rocks he had kneeled in cutting the underneath of the bushes, making them 'more shapely', as his aunt had put it. He winced with every step he took into the kitchen to collect his dinner. His aunt fed him a whole sandwich and a large glass of orange juice for the day's work he completed without lip. Soon after he finished his meal his uncle told him he could sleep upstairs, and he could do so if he got out of his sight immediately before he changed his mind. With that having been said Harry hurried towards the stairs, stopping to get Headwig and then rushing towards the smallest bedroom at Number 4.  
  
He let Hedwig out of her cage and opened the window. Instead of flying out to stretch her wings and hunt for food, she fluttered over and perched herself on the head of the bed, watching him fixedly. When Harry sat down on the bed, he felt like he had just ran a marathon. His head felt swollen and there was a sharp pain in his temples. He lay down and curled up in the unkempt mattress and closed his eyes. He was completely drained of energy. He didn't know what was wrong with himself. His body was covered with a cool sweat. He was breathing heavily all the time, and felt weak while he was doing his chores, even though he wasn't working as hard as he usually was. He fell asleep with a growing fever and thoughts on how he would survive the summer.  
  
The next few days passed by without few occurrences. He was given a chore list from his aunt to be finished b the end of the week and had worked twice as hard to finish them early. He had finished most of them in the first three days and took to resting on Thursday. His body was racked with painful coughs and terrible headaches and Harry dozed all through the day. He would have short nightmares about Sirius, or his parents, or Voldemort, and would wake up, but then exhaustion would take over and he would soon be right back asleep again. On Saturday, he felt worse than before, but went outside and started on finishing his chores none the less.  
  
Around lunch time his aunt called him in for lunch which he barley touched. He was given a large glass of water which he gulped down. He felt extremely parched and dehydrated. He hoped that whatever germ that was making him ill would go away soon, so he wouldn't feel so woozy all the time. When he finished what he felt he could eat, he picked himself up and headed back outside. He went to the tool shed and got out the trimming equipment and began his chores again.  
  
An hour after he had begun working again, a large white moving truck pulled up to the empty house on the street behind Privet Drive. The house had been for sale for about 4 months and the sign had read that it had been sold a week prior. He observed as a silver cruiser drove up and parked in the garage. A strapping man stepped out of the cabin and began to direct the movers in the truck. Harry stopped watching and went back to working silently, his vision blurring a bit from staring into the daylight. He worked for about a half an hour before he looked back up.  
  
He watched the movers unload the new neighbor's things, while he was cutting the hedges of the bushes on the back fence. He stopped when a deep cough racked his body. He wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his shirt, and grimaced as he pulled back and saw crimson phlegm on it. He looked back up at the house, and watched as a red car pulled up at the mailbox and stopped. A woman wearing a long lime green summer dress stepped out of the drivers side and went to the back door taking a crying toddler out of his car seat. She picked him up rubbing his back in slow circles trying to soothe him, walking toward the front door.   
  
The passengers side door sprung open and a girl Harry's age stepped out slamming the door. She had long golden strawberry blond hair that flowed freely down to the center of her back. Her body was tall and slender. Harry watched entranced with the sway of her hips and the way her hair flipped and swung with her step. He watched her enter the house and close the door. He sighed and went back to work so he could finish sooner and rest. He felt weak and tired all the time. He was sure that he was ill, but its not like the Dursley's would ever care. His uncle would just beat him for 'slacking off'.

.................................................

_Hi people who read my story. Sorry it took me a while to do this.. i had loads of crap to do and it stopped my creative juices from flowing... summer school sucked but its over now so i can concentrate on writing the story. .. yay i guess._


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I dont own em (well..mayb Karley and her family.. but thats it)... but as soon as magic is real.. i will own them.. and J.K will know nothing about her genius, cause i will wipe it all from her memory!... especially Draco.. he will be my slave.... yeah.. i had coffee this morning.. sue me!... okai.. yeah dont.. i have like.. no money..

Chapter 3.  
  
Karley Solina sat in her bedroom at Number 3 Campton Lane, staring out the window, watching a lean boy with unruly black hair do yard work. She sighed angrily; mad about her mothers job transfer. She was barely in England 3 hours and she was already missing America. She had been very happy there, and now she was 6 thousand miles away with an ocean between her and all her friends. The American Ministry had received a call from the Ministry of Magic in England requesting help with a few shortages in staff. Her mother had always talked about how she used to live in London and hoped one day she would go back and see her old friends if they were still there. So, when she got the call from the American Ministry asking if she wanted to go, she accepted, with no thought to how it would make her daughter feel.

Karley got up and walked downstairs. She passed by her mother, who was directing the moving men to where the furniture would go, and muttered to her that she was talking a walk. She walked out the back door and went to the side of the house and looked around to see if anyone was watched. When she saw that no one was, she closed her eyes in concentration. When she opened them, she looked different to say the least. She was no longer a 5 foot 6" long legged human girl. She was now a 3 foot golden retriever with a long swishy tail and soft blue eyes. She smiled inwardly and trotted along the sidewalk. She took a couple seconds to let her body to focus on the dogs keen senses. Then she started running. She always loved running as a dog. She could run a mile and barely feel tired.

She went around half the block and slowed when she spotted a familiar figure. The boy she had seen trimming the hedges in his backyard, was now doing so in the front yard. Sudden curiosity took her over and she trotted over to him in a very dog-like manner wagging her tail. She stood behind him for a moment and when he took no notice of her, she barked at him. She was surprised to see that he hadn't been scared at all, and wondered if he had known she was there. The dark-haired boy turned on his heals and squatted down to her level and pet her head softly. She sat down and her head felt hazy with comfort as he began to scratch behind her ears. She watched as the boy smiled and chuckled a bit as she rolled over to let him scratch her stomach, but he didn't.

"Sorry girl, I have to finish my work." He said in a hoarse rich solemn voice that puzzled Karley. Suddenly the front door of the house they were positioned in burst open and a unsightly portly man waddled out and looked at the boy who had spun around; a startled expression on his face.

"Get back to work now, boy!" the man yelled at him.

"Yes Uncle Vernon." The boy retorted monotonously. The large beefy man turned on Karley and threw the newspaper her had been holding at her. She moved quickly to doge it and darted away from the house.

"Stay away you stupid mutt." He yelled after her, and then walked back into his house.

She stepped behind the bushes of the house next to the one she had just been in front of and watched as the boy went back to work. 'That was interesting.' she thought to herself. She turned her head every-which way to see if anyone was staring and turned back into her human form. She crouched on the ground and looked back to see the boy working diligently on his chores with his back to her. She stood up and brushed her clothes off. He walked up him quietly, building up her courage.

"Hi." she said cheerfully. The boy didn't turn towards her or stop working but replied her with a quiet 'hello'. She looked at him curiously for a minute then looked inside to see the large man sitting at his kitchen table reading a new section of the paper.

"Does he always yell at you like that?" she asked without thinking. The boy stopped working and turned to face her.

"You saw that?" She nodded her head and the boy looked down at the ground.

"Yeah he does." Karley took her eyes off the whale of a man that hadn't seen her yet and sat down underneath the window so he couldn't. She saw the expression of the boy change from shame to worry.

"Then why don't you quit?" He looked at her with a puzzled expression.

"Quit?"

"Yeah." she said cocking her head to the side, "Work for someone else. I know I couldn't take crap like that."

"I can't." he said in a pained tone.

"Why not?"

"You shouldn't talk to me," he said changing the subject lowering his head back down to his task.

"And why not?" she asked watching him as he went back to working.

"I just moved in and you seem to be the only person my age here worth talking to."

"How is that? You just moved in less than 2 hours ago."

She smiled inwardly and rolled her eyes. "Cause I know everything." she said sticking her nose in the air in mock arrogance.  
She grinned when she saw the boy trying to hide the smile that was tugging at his chapped lips.

He quickly forced it down and turned to her and stopped working. "What's your name?"

"Karley Solina" she answered politely.

"Karley, you should go home now," the boy said quietly. He turned back to his work. Karley started angrily at the boy for a few seconds and then stood.

"Fine, I'm leaving." He turned on her heal and huffed away. The nerve of that boy telling her what to do. She got ten feet away when she stopped abruptly and turned back around. "What's your name?" she asked.  
He looked up at her, his hands never leaving the bushes and said in a pained hoarse voice, "Harry Potter" before he started a coughing fit. She watched him cough his body-racking cough with a wrinkled brow. A wave of concern overcame her irritation and she took a few steps toward the visibly ill teenager, but he put his hand up stopping her.

"Just go please." he managed to say before coughing again. Karley started walking backwards away from him looking intently at him. She looked closely at the hand in front of his mouth. It was covered with dirt and had small cuts on it, but she noticed that there was fresh blood coating it. It didn't take any of her eight years of schooling to tell her that the blood was coming from his lungs. She heard the lock click from the front door of Number 4 and she ran behind the bushes to her left. She crouched down and peered though the thicket to see the fat beefy man was back outside. He was talking in a hushed venomous voice to the raven-haired boy so Karley strained her ears to listen.

"..Boy!.. Get your lazy arse back to work. Stop trying for attention, or you'll get it. Do you hear me, boy?"

"Yes Uncle Vernon." he responded his hacking cough subsiding. "You had better." He grunted looking around to see if the neighbors were watching. Pleased that no one was, that he saw, he turned and strode inside, but didn't re-locking the door. She looked back to the dark-haired boy diligently working on his task he had been interrupted on so many times already. Karley sat back dazed. 'Why would his uncle treat him like that when he's obviously and painfully very sick'  
She started at the boy a few minutes debating to go to him or just go back home. When she had tried before the teenager just pushed her away. She sighed and looked about her surroundings. Seeing that no one was watching her, she transformed into her animal form and ran for home.

She got there in record time and ran in the house and up to her room without being noticed by the movers or her mother. She pushed her door open with her nose and trotted in, closing it behind her. She jumped up onto her bed and popped back to the girl she was born as. She reached under the bed and pulled out a long rectangular box. She opened it revealing a small sleek black muggle telescope. She set it up and peered into it. She moved it to look at Number 4. Looking into the house she saw the whale of a man sitting at the table, munching happily on a turkey sandwich. A boy about her age was sitting next to him, also equally as large, eating roast beef. A woman was walking about the kitchen cleaning things here and there and doting upon the boy at the table, whom Karley assumed, was her son. She reminded her of a horse. She scrunched up her nose in disgust at the three individuals she was staring at. These were horrible people. 'Did these folks not care about their nephew?' she wondered.

She saw in the upper corner of the lens that the front door had opened. She watched at the raven-haired boy walked inside slowly, and saw him pause at the entryway leading to the kitchen. She observed as he winched trying to keep his breath steady, his hand holding his chest. He gathered himself and stepped inside and began talking to his uncle. After a few minutes of them conversing, she saw the man go back to his paper and the boy turned slowly and walk out of her lens view. Karley looked up from the scope and at the house concerned. Even though she had just met this boy, she felt drawn to him. He felt special. And she knew she had her the name, "Harry Potter" before, she just could place it at the moment. Karley's frown deepened when she saw the target of her scrutiny enter her line of sight in an upstairs bedroom and sit heavily on the small bed.

"Karley!" She hard a voice call from below.

The girl in question rolled her eyes and leaned away from her rooted spot watching this intriguing boy and turned around. She opened her door and yelled back, "What?"

"Could you come down here please" It wasn't a question. She sighed and walked down the steps and into the living room. It didn't shock her at all that everything was perfectly in place and decorated; like they had been living there for months. Her mother always used magic to decorate, when it was perfectly fine to do it by hand. Karley on the other hand, preferred to do things the muggle way. It made everything just seem more personal. She sat down on a plush lavender sofa and waited for her mother to address her.

"Your Father and I are going to the ministry to get our jobs in order. Do take care of your brother while we're gone please. And do try and unpack a few things. I know you're not happy about it, but-- "Karley interrupted with a loud snort, like it was the understatement of the year, and her mother continued, "but you'll have to deal with it and don't get into trouble. Understand?"

"Yes mother." She answered hastily. Her mother gave her a long searching look and sighed. She would never understand her daughter. She got up and headed to the front door. She put on a black coat and walked outside. Karley watched her father walk out of the open door after her and close it softly behind him. 'Free at last' she said to herself. Karley got up and walked into the kitchen and grabbed an already made sandwich her mother probably made for her earlier and started back up to her bedroom. She was almost there when she heard a small, panicked whimpers coming from the room across the hall from her own. She opened the door slowly and peered in. Her brother was standing in his playpen staring at the door with big watery eyes, ready to burst out crying any second. His tiny hands gripped the sides of the baby crate in an effort to keep the tears back. Karley entered the room and walked over to him.

"Hey Ben." She said kneeling in front of him. "Aren't you supposed to be taking a nap?"

The little boy in question nodded his head slowly, and then shook it rapidly. He sniffed loudly and lifted his arms out to her. She stood up and lifted him out of his pen, and took out his blanket and a little teddy bear. Baby brother in arms, she walked out and into her own room. She sat the toddler down on the bed and placed the bear in his lap. She put the blanket over his head and sat next to him. He giggled and tore the blanket off his head, his smile wide. She tickled his sides and he doubled over in laughter. His giggles put a smile on Karley's face. Karley stopped her tickle assault to let her brother catch his breath.

She looked over at the window and peered at Number 4. Looking into the little room the boy, Harry, had been in earlier, she barely saw his sinewy figure sitting up on the bed, his knees bent up to his chest, a snowy white bird perched upon his knee. Frowning, she drew her attention back to her brother.

"What do you want for dinner later?" she asked him.

"Cheeo's!" he shouted happily. "You can't have Cheerio's for dinner. Mom said. You know that."

"Chicken!" He cried throwing his arms above his head, smiling stupidly.

Karley laughed, "Again? Is that all you eat is Cheerio's and chicken? How bout something else like… roast beef or fish?"

"Ewwy," the toddler said scrunching up his nose. "Okay, fine… we'll eat chicken." Karley sighed. "YAY!" Ben joyously proclaimed.  
  
The rest of the week passed by boringly. Karley's parents were home off and on. Her mother had gotten a new job at the ministry, and her father had become an auror. Karley spent most of the time unpacking and going shopping at the local muggle malls. She had gone to Diagon Ally with her mother a few times to get some suppies and new robes and such for school.

There was two weeks left till the end of July and Karley was nervous. She had not seen for heard anything from the boy across the way at Number 4 for the past two days and hopped that he hadn't gone to the hospital for being too sick. She was worried out of her mind, and was angry that the boy's relatives looked happy instead of saddened for their nephew's disappearance. She felt like a stalker for wanting to go over to the small house and talk some sense into people she had never met, but thought better of it. She decided it wasn't her business.

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**A/N:** My mom and I went on a totally unlpanned vacation for two weeks and my laptop crashed....it sucked so much ass its not even funny... i had to write most of this chapter over.. it had been better.. now its this...

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Thank you for the reviews i got.. it motivated me... =P 


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